Chop Chop Chop

I took Chip the X-Gamer to his judo lesson tonight. Chip has been feeling a bit neglected by me lately. Mrs BOB and I have been admittedly very occupied with the Allstar's baseball exploits, not because of any favoritism towards one kid, but baseball does require a huge time commitment. But I digress. The Chipper had complained that I never go to his judo lessons, never play soccer with etc.
First things first, judo lessons are on Wednesday nights. Wednesdays are work nights. I just so happened to take the night off.
He took up soccer again after a one year hiatus. We had signed up with the local AYSO league (#249) along with the Genius and the Allstar.
In the past year and a half, we had decided that the Chipper was not into team sports. He did not play soccer last fall and he didn't want to play baseball this year. In the interim, we looked up various individual sports, most notably martial arts: kenpo karate, aikido, judo, etc.
We picked judo for several reasons: time and days were convenient, near home and a class was being offered in our town's recreational guide.
Now when you think of recreational guides, you think of salsa dancing at the local community center, swimming lessons, computers for beginners, etc. etc. etc. The judo class were actually being held at Cahill's Judo Academy, a very reputable dojo who have been in business for over 50 years in and around the San Francisco Peninsula. We signed up Chip for 8 weeks, a trial period to see if he would like it or not. The prospects for continuation did not look good when The Chipper asked me when he could start breaking bricks. Sadly, I explained to him that breaking bricks is not part of judo.
It came as a pleasant surprise that after the 8-week trial he wanted to continue. We signed up him for an additional 3 months, crossing our fingers that he doesn't tire of judo before that time.
Back to tonight's lesson. Tonight a gruff, stocky, man in his 50s was running the 6-7pm, 7-12 year old class. It can't be easy running a class of 20-25 kids, but I was impressed as the kids, for the most part, paid attention, lest the wrath of the judo master. With his booming voice and heat-seeking glare, the master put his charges through warmups (sit-ups, laps around the dojo and push-ups), some basic judo holds and some one-on-one rassling.
The incident of the night came when one kid, not paying attention to what the class was doing, was thrown and fell awkwardly. He landed on his head with his neck doing its best imitation of a pretzel. The dad just about shit in his pants. I could tell he wanted to say something to do the judo master, something along the line of "What kind of fuckin' class are you running here!"
I suppose he thought better because:
a) This is a judo class, shit happens.
b) If he wanted a safe, non-contact environment, there's always ballet.*
c) This guy could probably kick his ass six days to Sunday.

As a parent, I totally felt his pain, not to mention that of his son's vertabrae.
As for Chip, I noticed that his sparring partner was hurt on one occasion after he flipped him. From then on, The Chipper held back for fear of hurting the other kid. He gots to learn. Can't be holding back on matters such as martial arts. It's why I feel like I need to be their for every lesson, cuz Mom's can't supply me with the proper details of the goings-ons at the dojo. After class and even today, Chip and I went over the lesson. I'm going to need mom's to cover, in more detail, every judo lesson. $30 a month (if paid 3 months in advance) might not seem like much, but in this day of $3.50 a gallon octane, it has to go a long way in the BOB household.
Next week, koshi-waza.

*(There was a ballet class for boys and girls in the park and rec guide. I'm willing to bet however that the number of boys enrolled in the class equals the number of times the San Francisco Giants have won the World Series. Unless there is a dad out there who is sooo secure in his own masculinity that he would subject his son to ballet classes at an early age, in a town that loves its baseball so much, I think no such person exists.)